biosecurity. To achieve this, support would be provided to low- and middle-income economies, creating a powerful barrier to pandemics that would help save lives. A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY Prevention and preparedness, too, are a shared responsibility. There is no trade-off between equity in response on the one hand, and prevention and preparedness on the other. They are not a zero-sum game, but two sides of the same coin. The new pandemic agreement is not an EU project, but a partnership of equals. We see it as a common good for all of us. For it to succeed, we must all embrace it in equal measure and share the same sense of responsibility. Last but not least, three important horizontal benefits underpin the EU’s approach to a new global health architecture: greater emergency workforce capabilities, better information to tackle pandemics and measures to fight misinformation and disinformation, and extended capacity-building in all areas. The EU’s vision for a stronger global health architecture aims to deliver tangible results for all our partners. The kind of solidarity and common purpose that will promote equity must go hand in hand with an inclusive approach that considers the views of all countries and stakeholders. The nature of the health threats we face are evolving, but so too are the tools we have to tackle them. Developments in research and digitalisation are expanding the possibilities for building stronger and more sustainable health systems. With the new Global Health Strategy, the EU intends to exploit these new possibilities and fully embrace its duty of taking a leadership position in this process. We want to do so by building on our experience and bringing the solutions we are putting in place onto a global scale. The health landscape has irrevocably changed over the last years. The next year will be a collective test of just how much we have truly learned. In the EU, we are determined to stay the course. ▪
STELLA KYRIAKIDES Stella Kyriakides is the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety for the European Union. She leads the work to put in place the foundations of a European Health Union. She is also responsible for the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy for sustainable food production and consumption. She has been at the forefront of the EU public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, and EU efforts to support Ukraine and its people in the area of health. Throughout her career, she has been a long-standing advocate for women’s, children’s and patients’ rights, and for better mental health. X-TWITTER @SKyriakidesEU
is crucial to address the challenges partners face, genuinely promoting equity. The EU Global Health Strategy also underlines the importance of a global mechanism that promotes equity for low- and middle-income countries regarding access to vaccines and other essential medical products – another key lesson of Covid-19. Although such a mechanism would naturally be anchored in the pandemic agreement, the next pandemic may not wait for its entry into force. This is why we support the swift establishment of an interim mechanism to ensure we have a safety net. The September meetings in New York this year were a unique opportunity to set it in motion. Beyond the medical response to health crises, the world will simply not be safe unless we collectively strengthen prevention and preparedness as well. Here, the EU is proposing to significantly strengthen infection prevention and control across the board through a One Health approach. This includes improved capabilities to detect, survey and identify pathogens, including zoonotic ones; better access, sharing and storage of pathogen samples and of genomic sequences; and tighter biosafety and
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Health: A Political Choice – From Fragmentation to Integration
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